The People's Choice Awards provided a nice little warm up for awards season -- a light 5-minute jog around the track, if you will -- but when the red carpet rolls out at the Beverly Hilton for the Golden Globes, Hollywood knows it's officially time for the big leagues.

From thigh-high slits and sprawling ball gowns to intricate add-ons and unexpected colors, click ahead to see which celebs brought their A-game and which ones had a somewhat slower start to awards season at the 2014 Golden Globes (there's always the Oscars, folks).

What red carpet? All eyes were on Lupita Nyong'o and her fiery orange-red Ralph Lauren dress. The fact that she kicked off awards season with a dramatic cape dress has us excited for the rest to come ... and convinced that she can do no wrong.

After seeing snaps from Kayley Cuoco's New Year's Eve wedding, we already know this silhouette works for the actress. Unfortunately, this Rani Zakhem number looks like she took her pink wedding gown and threw it in the wrong load of laundry (with some still art paintings, possibly?) It's going to be hard to top the dress you choose to wear on your wedding day, so we hope Cuoco branches out to new styles and shapes for the remainder of awards season.

Lena Dunham is never one to follow the rules, which is why we were so pleased with her fearless ensemble. The "Girls" creator hit the red carpet in a bright (and we mean bright), yellow Zac Posen dress. Yellow is a notoriously hard color to pull off, but Dunham went for it, and in a gorgeous mermaid-cut, no less.

Forget about fringe-y flapper dresses and t-strap heels, we're all on board for Elisabeth Moss' take on the Roaring '20s. Her embellished J. Mendel gown reminded us of a vintage art deco mosaic, while the interesting hemline brought us back to 2014. Factor in the dark color palette that gave it an edge with her cropped haircut and you have a fresh take on a Gatsby party-goer.